


Scrapes

by theoddling



Series: Break My Heart Right (Luba x Reader) [5]
Category: Mute (2018)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Discussion of physical abuse, F/M, Post-Canon, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29173737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoddling/pseuds/theoddling
Summary: A confrontation at the reader's workplace leads to an argument with Luba while he tends to them after.
Relationships: Luba/Reader
Series: Break My Heart Right (Luba x Reader) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2031844





	Scrapes

“Shit!” you muttered, fumbling with the cotton swab in your hand as you rushed to dab antiseptic on the split of your cheek as if that could hide it. You could hear Luba in the living room, the door closing heavily behind him. 

“Heelloo?” he called out, his voice the cheerful singsong that told you that it had been a good day at work. “Y/N? Don’t tell me you’re asleep?”

Maybe if you pretended not to hear him, he would assume you had in fact and he would pout but leave it be. Maybe you could have until morning to come up with an explanation that wouldn’t get that disappointed sigh from him. 

“If you are, I’m waking you up,” he threatened. “I’m bored. The night is young. We could go out.”

“I’m...sick,” you finally answered, the lie rolling off your tongue before you could think. 

“Oh, no,” you could hear the frown in his voice. “Sick is it? Do you need anything? Soup? Cuddles? Hot water bottle? A massage?”

You couldn’t help the smile that crept across your face, even as your mind raced to find an answer. You heard his catlike treads pass the bathroom door toward your bedroom, only to pause.

“Do I need to come in and hold your hair?” he offered, voice soft and coaxing on the other side of the door. 

The knob started to turn.

“No!” you panicked, shoving the door shut again in his face. “I don’t want you to see me like this!”

“As if I haven’t seen the worst of you already and still found you gorgeous.”

“Er,” you hissed, praying that he couldn’t hear it, as you dabbed at the oozing wound. “I don’t want you to get sick too?”

“Y/N, what is going on?” he asked harshly. “You sound like you’re in pain. And you’re a bad liar. Let me in.”

Your shoulders sagged as you relented with a sigh, knowing he wasn’t going to give up anyway.

“Thank you,” he said dramatically as he entered the little space, before turning and seeing your face in the mirror.

“You’re bleeding!” his aghast cry seemed too loud so close, and made your head throb. “Why the fuck are you bleeding?” his long fingers curled around your chin, turning you to face him as he inspected the marks on your face.

“It’s...complicated.”

“What could be complicated about this, Y/N? What happened? Who did this?” He free hand began to roam the rest of you, checking you over for more injuries, green eyes sharp with worry.

“Luba, stop.” You tried to step away, back bumping against the wall and the gap between you barely widening.

He fell silent and still, watching you sharply, jaw tight. He was angry. At you, or at least partially so.

“I swung first,” you said by way of explanation, turning back to the mirror to poke at your injuries and see how bad they looked now that they were clean, trying not to wince as your fingers probed the tender skin and made the one above your eyebrow bleed again. “But he deserved it.”

He rolled his eyes (his whole head really), turning you back to face him again. His fingers were gentle as he dabbed the blood away, thumb rubbing small circles over the bruises already forming.

“Next you’re going to tell me I should see the other guy because he’s in much worse shape.”

“No,” you admitted pathetically. “He basically kicked my ass til Alexi smacked him with an airbrush pump.” You tried to smile as if the whole thing was a big joke, but it hurt, and the expression on Luba’s face made the false mirth drop from yours. 

“You’re going to get yourself killed.” His voice was low and he wouldn’t meet your eyes now. 

He turned, picking up the tiny suture strips you had laid out on the counter. There was a tremor in his hands as he carefully laid the first one on your brow, so minute that you wouldn’t have noticed it if his touch hadn’t been on you. 

“Luba, I--” you sighed, not sure what to say to him.

“What did he do, that was so deserving?” He pressed a little harder than necessary to make sure the next strip stuck, and you breathed in sharply through your nose. 

Your mind flashed back to earlier in the evening, to the sight of bruises like fingerprints on your client’s arm, the tremor in his voice as he explained that his partner didn’t like the quote he’d had you tattoo on his shoulder a few months before and wanted it removed or covered up. You knew this boy and you had seen in seconds the way the man made the light in him die out and it had just filled you with rage, hot and all-consuming. And then the bastard had refused to leave your studio when you told him to go, laughed in your face like he had some entitlement to be there. So you’d decked him. 

But how did you explain that to Luba?

“Sometimes a guy just deserves to be punched,” you muttered defensively, gaze falling from his. 

“Don’t do that, Y/N. Don’t shut me out.” He affixed the last suture, tilting that side of your head further into the light to check his work. “Please?”

You sighed. “I got protective of a regular client with a shitty boyfriend, okay? And the guy was like twice my size and built like a wall, and I should have known better but I didn’t. Or I did, and didn’t care. I don’t know. Do you want an apology or something?”

“No I don’t want an apology,” he sounded frustrated and you felt guilt twist your stomach. “I want you to care more about yourself instead of everyone else.”

You opened your mouth to protest that you did take care of yourself, you were perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, and you didn’t understand why he was acting like you could only do one or the other, but he cut you off.

“I’m getting you a compress, your eye is going to look awful,” he said, sweeping out of the bathroom.

You stared down your reflection in the mirror, glaring at it like it had wronged you somehow, noticing how swollen it already was. 

“I’d suggest getting up early tomorrow so you have time to cover it up,” Luba said, appearing behind you once more, reaching around you to place the cold cloth against your hot skin, “but knowing you, you’ll just wear it proudly like some badge of honor shit.”

“You’re really upset with me,” you observed, wanting to lean back against him and relax into his soothing touch but not until you had settled things for certain. 

“Of course I am!” He met your good eye with his own, burning with intensity. “How would you feel if things were swapped and I came home, face like minced meat and knuckles shredded? If I said I got in a fight because I didn’t like how someone might be treating someone else?”

“Hey, my face is not that bad off.”

His flat expression told you that you weren’t going to be able to deflect this one. Nor were you going to escape, given the way his arms caged you in. You were having this conversation, it seemed. 

“I’d be upset,” you admitted finally. “I’d be pissed, and I’d be worried about you. But what was I supposed to do, sit back and do nothing?” 

“Yes,” he hissed before shaking his head. “No. Just...be smart, like I know you are.”

He suddenly leaned down to kiss your hair, tilting his chin to rest on top of your head after. 

“I just want you safe, okay?” he murmured. 

“Okay,” you nodded. “I’ll...try harder next time. Or for there not to be a next time.”

“Thank you. Now do you want help with those hands?”

Without waiting for an answer, he took one of them in his and picked up the gauze you had set out earlier, carefully winding it around. 

“Especially be careful with these, you need them. And I am...so fond of them myself,” he teased with a smirk, letting you know that all was well.


End file.
